{"id":164754,"date":"2026-02-05T06:17:25","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T06:17:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/164754\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T06:17:25","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T06:17:25","slug":"california-leaders-decry-trump-call-to-nationalize-election-say-theyre-ready-to-resist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/164754\/","title":{"rendered":"California leaders decry Trump call to ‘nationalize’ election, say they’re ready to resist"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON\u00a0\u2014\u00a0President Trump\u2019s repeated calls<\/a> to \u201cnationalize\u201d elections drew swift resistance from California officials this week, who said they are ready to fight should the federal government attempt to assert control over the state\u2019s voting system.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would win that on Day One,\u201d California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta told The Times. \u201cWe would go into court<\/a> and we would get a restraining order within hours, because the U.S. Constitution says that states predominantly determine the time, place and manner of elections, not the president.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re prepared to do whatever we have to do in California,\u201d said California Secretary of State Shirley Weber, whose office recently fought off<\/a> a Justice Department lawsuit demanding California\u2019s voter rolls and other sensitive voter information.<\/p>\n

Both Bonta and Weber said their offices are closely watching for any federal action that could affect voting in California, including efforts to seize election records, as the FBI recently did in Georgia<\/a>, or target the counting of mailed ballots, which Trump has baselessly alleged<\/a> are a major source of fraud.<\/p>\n

Weber said California plays an outsized role in the nation and is \u201cthe place that people want to beat,\u201d including through illegitimate court challenges to undermine the state\u2019s vote after elections, but California has fought off such challenges in the past and is ready to do it again.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a cadre of attorneys that are already, that are always prepared during our elections to hit the courts to defend anything that we\u2019re doing,\u201d she said. \u201cOur election teams, they do cross the T\u2019s, dot the I\u2019s. They are on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have attorneys ready to be deployed wherever there\u2019s an issue,\u201d Bonta said, noting that his office is in touch with local election officials to ensure a rapid response if necessary.<\/p>\n

The standoff reflects an extraordinary deterioration of trust and cooperation in elections that has existed between state and federal officials for generations \u2014 and follows a remarkable doubling down by Trump after his initial remarks about taking over the elections raised alarm. <\/p>\n

Trump has long alleged, without evidence and despite multiple independent<\/a> reviews concluding the opposite<\/a>, that the 2020 election was stolen from him. He has alleged, again without evidence, that millions of fraudulent votes were cast, including by non-citizen voters, and that blue states looked the other way to gain political advantage.<\/p>\n

Last week, the Justice Department acted on those claims by raiding the Fulton County, Ga., elections hub and seizing 2020 ballots. The department also has sued states, including California, for their voter rolls<\/a>, and is defending a Trump executive order seeking to end mail voting and add new proof of citizenship requirements for registering to vote, which California and other states have sued to block<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On Monday, Trump further escalated his pressure campaign by saying on former FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino\u2019s podcast that Republicans should \u201ctake over the voting in at least 15 places,\u201d alleging that voting irregularities in what he called \u201ccrooked states\u201d are hurting his party. \u201cThe Republicans ought to nationalize the voting<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Tuesday morning, Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, appeared to try to walk back Trump\u2019s comments, saying he had been referring to the Save Act, a measure being pushed by Republicans in Congress to codify Trump\u2019s proof-of-citizenship requirements. However, Trump doubled down later that day, telling reporters that if states \u201ccan\u2019t count the votes legally and honestly, then somebody else should take over.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bonta said Trump\u2019s comments were a serious escalation, not just bluster: \u201cWe always knew they were going to come after us on something, so this is just an affirmation of that \u2014 and maybe they are getting a step closer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bonta said he will especially be monitoring races in the state\u2019s swing congressional districts, which could play a role in determining control of Congress and therefore be a target of legal challenges.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe strategy of going after California isn\u2019t rational unless you\u2019re going after a couple of congressional seats that you think will make a difference in the balance of power in the House,\u201d Bonta said.<\/p>\n

California Democrats in Congress have stressed that the state\u2019s elections are safe and reliable, but also started to express unease about upcoming election interference by the administration.<\/p>\n

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Fremont) said on \u201cMeet the Press\u201d last week that he believes the administration will try to use \u201cevery tool in their toolbox to try and interfere,\u201d but that the American people will \u201covercome it by having a battalion of lawyers at the polls.\u201d<\/p>\n

California Sen. Adam Schiff this week said recent actions by the Trump administration \u2014 including the Fulton County raid, where Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard put Trump on the phone with agents \u2014 were \u201cwrong\u201d and set off \u201calarm bells about their willingness to interfere in the next election.\u201d<\/p>\n

Democrats have called on their Republican colleagues to help push back against such interference.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen he says that we should nationalize the elections and Republicans should take over, and you don\u2019t make a peep? What is going on here?\u201d Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Tuesday. \u201cThis is the path that has ruined many a democracy, and our democracy is deep and strong, but it requires \u2014 and allows \u2014 resistance to these things. Verbal resistance, electoral resistance. Where are you?\u201d<\/p>\n

Some Republicans have voiced their disagreement with Trump. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said Tuesday that he is \u201csupportive of only citizens voting and showing ID at polling places,\u201d but is \u201cnot in favor of federalizing elections,\u201d which he called \u201ca constitutional issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a big believer in decentralized and distributed power. And I think it\u2019s harder to hack 50 election systems than it is to hack one,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

However, other Republican leaders have commiserated with Trump over his qualms with state-run elections. House Majority Leader Mike Johnson (R-La.), for example, took aim at California\u2019s system for counting mail-in ballots in the days following elections, questioning why such counting led to Republican leads in House races being \u201cmagically whittled away until their leads were lost.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt looks on its face to be fraudulent. Can I prove that? No, because it happened so far upstream,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cBut we need more confidence in the American people in the election system.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elections experts expressed dismay over Johnson\u2019s comments, calling them baseless and illogical. The fact that candidates who are leading in votes can fall behind as more votes are counted is not magic but math, they said \u2014 with Democrats agreeing.<\/p>\n

\u201cSpeaker Johnson seems to be confused, so let me break it down. California\u2019s elections are safe and secure. The point of an election is to make sure *every* eligible vote cast is counted, not to count fast,\u201d Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) wrote on X. \u201cWe don\u2019t just quit while we\u2019re ahead. It\u2019s called a democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Democrats have also expressed concern that the administration could use the U.S. Postal Service to interfere with counting mail-in ballots. They have specifically raised questions about a rule issued by the postal service last December that deems mail postmarked on the day it is processed by USPS, rather than the day it is received \u2014 which would impact mail-in ballots in places such as California, where ballots must be postmarked by election day to be counted.<\/p>\n

\u201cElection officials are already concerned and warning that this change could ultimately lead to higher mailed ballots being rejected,\u201d Senate Democrats wrote to U.S. Postal Service Postmaster General David Steiner last month.<\/p>\n

Some experts and state officials said voters should make a plan to vote early, and consider dropping their ballots in state ballot drop boxes or delivering them directly to voting centers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON\u00a0\u2014\u00a0President Trump\u2019s repeated calls to \u201cnationalize\u201d elections drew swift resistance from California officials this week, who said they…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":164755,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2672,7167,9610,7,17490,2340,9,8,8142,1752,217,204,1410,1748,225,1519,4486,79622],"class_list":["post-164754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-administration","tag-ballot","tag-bonta","tag-california","tag-california-atty","tag-california-democrats","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-comment","tag-congress","tag-day","tag-election","tag-place","tag-republicans","tag-state","tag-trump","tag-vote","tag-voting-system"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164754\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/164755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}